[AR] DMLS Chambers WAS Re: Rocket Labs
- From: Dave McMillan <skyefire@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2015 15:23:58 -0400
On 9/16/2015 12:36 PM, Ben Brockert wrote:
I'm more curious if they're using standard channels or if they're
using a more modern design appropriate for a printed engine. I'm
always a bit frustrated when I see 3d printed engines with channels
that were designed for a milled chamber. At least spiral them enough
that differences in flow from channel to channel don't cause linear
hot spots and early failures.
That actually reminds me of something I've speculated about in the
past: if one assumes a "perfect" 3D-printing process for creating a
regen engine chamber/throat/nozzle, has anyone ever come up with an
optimum design for the cooling channels layout? While 3DP is hardly
perfect, it certainly does make previously-impossible complex interior
geometries suddenly a lot less impossible.
Hm... and it suddenly occurs to me that 3DP might make it possible
to iterate complex *injector* geometries much more rapidly than was
previously possible. Dunno if injectors might benefit from that as much
as regen channels, but anything that lowers the cost of trying different
designs can't hurt.
Going further afield... watching the various tech journals, it
seems we might not be so far from being able to print sensors, and their
"wiring," directly into the structure of of the engine. I have to
imagine that having a sensor "carpet" every few tens of millimeters
throughout the engine shell would be a boon to engine designers.
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